Ryan Lochte wins medley gold as Michael Phelps finishes fourth

Jul 29, 2012 Sports

Ryan Lochte thrashed his American compatriot and double Olympic champion Michael Phelps to take 400m individual medley gold with a dominant performance.
Phelps, gold medallist in both Athens and Beijing and the greatest all-round swimmer his sport has seen, was left without even a bronze as Brazil’s Thiago Periera took silver and Japan’s Kosuke Hagino third.

Ryan Lochte

But this was all about Lochte, the brash rising star, seizing ascendancy in buccaneering fashion.
“That was a fantastic race. Lochte went for it from the beginning and dominated all the strokes. To have Lochte take 0.2secs off Phelps on the fly then it was only going to go one way on the backstroke.”
Lochte said: “I’m in shock right now, but I knew I could win so I’m happy I could do that. I heard the fans throughout and having them and my family right there really helped.”
And referring to Phelps he said: “I know he gave everything he had, so I’ll have to have a chat with him and see how he is after that.”
A disappointed Phelps said: “I felt great for the first 200m, but after that it just didn’t happen. I was lucky to get in [the final]. I had the chance to get off on a good note but didn’t do it.”
Phelps’ coach Bob Bowman added: “He trained really well coming in here – I’m surprised. We just have to put it behind us and move on.”
At the US trials this summer, Lochte had won his duel with Phelps by less than a second, but here in London his four minutes 05.18 seconds saw him almost four seconds clear of Phelps’s 4:09.28.
He went off hard and turned off the butterfly leg, supposedly Phelps’s strongest, 0.2 seconds in front, and extended that advantage to 2.55 seconds after the backstroke as Hagino came past the struggling champion.
Phelps was isolated out in lane eight after only scraping into the final as last qualifier from the morning’s heats and could make no impression as Lochte turned at 300m with Pereira two bodylengths adrift in second and Hagino in third.
With 50m to go, Lochte was inside Phelps’s own world-record pace but despite that goal slipping away from him he added Olympic gold to his World Championship crown as the American contingent in the crowd roared him home.
Phelps had been marginally second favourite going into the first round of the pair’s eagerly anticipated duel.
But his display here left him stunned and raises questions about his form in his other events as he seeks to add to his record-breaking 14 Olympic golds.

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